Race You to the Bottom

I had been looking forward to this film for quite some time as the synopsis seemed interesting. Also, truth be told, I am a complete sucker for gay melodramas and romantic comedies. I waited foolishly and have decided I want my time back.

Was the writer even in favor of gay relationships or the gay lifestyle? I ask because he does everything possible to craft the most loathsome gay lead character in history. Not only that, but he managed to cast an actor who is equally unappealing to play the character.

For whatever reason we are supposed to enjoy watching Nathan, a young man who is so in love with his talent, looks, and irresistible sexuality that it induces nothing but unending eye rolls. This is due to the fact that Nathan does not come off as especially talented, attractive, alluring, or intelligent. All of his dialogue is spoken merely to inflate himself and belittle everyone else around him. How could anyone be attracted to this hateful, greasy, selfish character at all, let alone enough to profess your love for him.

Take my advice, steer clear from this movie. It's title is much more fitting than I could have originally imagined as this film, its lead actor/character, director, and script have taken a very steep and rapid trip to the bottom of my trash bin.

I watched this movie as I had a spare hour and a half and the 73 minute running time intrigued me, as I often find that a lot films these days are over inflated and over long. This film is a confusing "love" story with an unlikeable lead. The casting of the leading male actor was a mistake as far as I was concerned. He didn't (to me) have the charisma required to portray the "lothario" he was convinced he was. His looks bordered on effeminate. Don't get me wrong, effeminacy does not bother me in the slightest,but in this case, I found it hard to find the actor/character as irresistible as the film would have you believe. Kudos however must go to the lady playing the female lead. I felt she gave a good performance and she made me feel for her. Which is a definite plus, right? The road trip format of this movie has been done before. And I quite enjoy road trips if the traveling companions are interesting and the destination is worth the trip. In this case, it wasn't. Not a total waste of time, but I would not recommend this as a must see.

I never believed for a minute that Cole Williams' character was a true bisexual and therein lies the flaw in RACE YOU TO THE BOTTOM. He's an arrogant, self-centered writer (whose talent is also something of a line of BS), who is acting like a spoiled baby and it is hard to muster up any sympathy for him or any of the other characters in this road-to-nowhere film. The DVD commentary tries to explain away their behavior by emphasizing that that the characters are in their 20's and this is their 'time' to be self-centered and let ego rule. Maybe if the film-maker took a solid stance on how HE feels about them, we'd care too. But he didn't and we don't so race to the credits and get it over with.

This is one of those movies that has absolutely NO redeeming values or reasons to watch. Since the synopsis is pretty accurate, I'll just concentrate on the basics here. The script is linear and understandable, but completely unrelatable. NONE of the characters is likeable; I know this has been used by some film makers as a plot device so the viewers subtly start rooting for the anti-hero, but no...these characters are not only awful, but they are boring. Most of the film is just people talking, and not saying much of anything at all. In fact, if there were a moral anywhere here, it's that bi-sexual men are apparently narcissistic and evil and women are confused and spiteful. The end. What I WILL say is that the cinematography and editing was GREAT...completely wasted on such a lackluster film. And while there was no attraction to any of the characters, I will say the female lead was good in her role; she may have been type-cast, but she did a good job, which is why I added a star here. But unless you are a friend of hers, that is not a reason to watch this.

I agree with another reviewer here about the film's decent technical quality, but I wouldn't extend that to acting. Amber Benson is good, actually, but the rest of the cast is pretty much sub-par. I particularly thought many of Cole Williams' lines were read poorly.

The story could have been interesting, but the script didn't do it justice. The dialog sounded forced and stilted much of the time. It just didn't ring true, didn't sound like true life. When the plot conflict develops, I couldn't quite see the reason for it. There didn't seem to be anything happening that hadn't happened before so I couldn't understand the characters' reactions.

It was difficult not to compare this movie to Sideways. Not that they had all that much in common except the location, but that was enough to have me constantly thinking of how much better this movie could have been.